Segments in this Video

Creating the Vaccine(04:14)

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In Indonesia, an epidemic of bird flu has killed more people than anywhere else on Earth. The most dangerous strain of this virus is H5N1. Dr. John Wood describes the highly pathogenic virus which escapes from the respiratory tract, spreads through the body, and causes multiple organ failure.

Betting Against Pandemic Flu(04:04)

Production of seasonal flu vaccine is a biological process because of the yearly evolution of the virus; doctors must predict the most dangerous strain. Seasonal flu vaccines are unlikely to protect people from an outbreak of pandemic flu.

Pre-Pandemic Vaccines(08:15)

The H5N1 strain of the bird flu emerged in China, but has since spread into the Middle East and Africa, and infected poultry was discovered in Europe. Dr. Mukhtar Ikhsan explains the biggest threat to stockpiled pandemic flu vaccine is the mutation of the most dangerous strains of bird flu.

Seasonal Flu Vaccine Increase (02:59)

Worldwide, seasonal flu is still a deadly, particularly for the elderly or chronically ill; if sixty percent of the population is vaccinated, then eight million people could be saved. Vaccination, however, cannot prevent a pandemic outbreak of the flu virus.

Description

The world stands on the edge of a flu pandemic, according to the world’s leading experts. The results, they predict, will be catastrophic. Millions of deaths, economies and civil society in chaos, political life undermined or destroyed. A doomsday scenario! Such outbreaks happen two or three times every hundred years. We are due one now—and the avian flu strain H5N1 is the most likely candidate for a future pandemic. The last catastrophic flu pandemic was in 1918, just after World War I. No one really knows, but it’s estimated it killed between 50 and 100 million people—more than twice as many as had died in the war itself. H1N1 is the strain responsible for this worst epidemic in recorded history. Almost a century later, H5N1—an avian flu strain—could do exactly the same thing. The challenge now is to develop a vaccine before the pandemic arrives.